Choirgirl21

Like mdt said, you really need to investigate each market individually as each market's rules/restrictions and how they enforce them can vary a lot. "My" market - Greenbelt Farmers Market - is producer only and the farm is required to be within 100 miles and they hold pretty fast to that. However, they don't require the farms to be organic (in fact, I believe only one is certified organic) and up until this point, the meat vendor was not raising his meats purely on pasture. The latter was because they had been unable to locate a vendor who raised their animals entirely on pasture though. I volunteered to help recruit new vendors this year and did find one whose animals are purely pasture-raised (her heritage breed pigs have access to woods as well) - she is fabulous and I'm so excited to have her at the market this year! Anyway, the easiest thing to do is to find out the rules and ask someone from the market how they enforce them. Our market does farm visits periodically, but they do also expect that patrons will talk to the farmers about their methods to make sure they are comfortable with them. I think you can probably learn something about a market by looking at the vendor materials. Our vendor application and requirements are all posted right on the website so you can see exactly what they're asking the farmers before they screen them. The next step is to talk to each vendor before you buy their products. The other thing to consider is pre-made products - many markets will allow vendors who are located and make their product within the specified distance to vend, even if the ingredients for the product are not local. Greenbelt really tries to avoid that - our ice cream vendor for instance uses locally sourced ingredients, often sourced straight from the produce vendors at the market, but there are exceptions. Zeke's vends at the market too and clearly their coffee beans are from other countries. Likewise, I believe that the Riverdale market is producer only, but the pickle vendor does not use local cucumbers simply b/c he goes through such a large quantity as to make it impossible (or so he told me). I used to buy his pickles, but have decided they're so easy to make that this year I'll make my own. But again, this is all information that I gleaned mostly from my discussions with the farmers/vendors themselves and a bit with the board members or other volunteers (I volunteer occasionally in the summer at the info booth so I had good opportunities to ask questions, but there is always one officer present at the market each Sunday). So decide what your priorities are and then ask questions. My personal priority is to find markets that have a clear definition of what is considered local and enforce it. Then within that structure, I know what else to ask individual vendors - do they use pesticides or fertilizers and if so, how often? If they are providing a pre-made product, where did the source their ingredients, etc. Not sure if this helpful or I'm just rambling.

Can't wait for reports on this place. Just checked out the menu online and it looks good. Rabbit confit, yum.

I work near that Giant in White Oak, have for 10 yrs. All of this time I thought that each chain was allowed to have one store in the county with a license and that I just happened to be buy the Giant that did. I guess I totally made that up. Who knew. (Not that I buy wine there anyway).

Thanks for all of the great feedback. I've been to Vinoteca once and I have to say I was not impressed. Sounds like others are in agreement so I'll kick that one off of the list. I loved my meal at Cork and didn't realize it was near 9:30 so I got super excited until someone said it's closed on Mondays. Boohoo. I'm happy to finally try Bar Pilar though since the opinions still seem to be high so maybe we'll plan for that if we're up for it, otherwise if we want cheap and good we'll just go to Dukem. Glad to hear the Vidalia recommendations. I went for my birthday during restaurant week once and it was a mixed bag. I need to give it another shot. I'll add that to the short list along with Proof and Central. I also like the idea of Zatinya or Poste outside if the weather is good - that might work better with our plans to just wander around anyway and we could pop in mid-afternoon when places might be less busy. But the praise for Vidalia has me leaning that way too...have to discuss with my friend and see what will work best. Another BRMC fan?! I have such a hard time getting people to go with me so I usually go alone. I don't think I've missed one of their concerts here and I even saw them at Ramshead Live in Baltimore when they opened for Kings of Leon. Probably could have skipped that one, not a big KOL fan at all, but I was set on my BF at the time seeing them live.

A fellow foodie friend is coming into town the first weekend of April and I've been thinking about where we should eat, but in doing so, I realized that I think I'm out of touch with the DC restaurant scene a tad as I've been eating out in Baltimore these days. And unfortunately, he will probably arrive too late on Friday for us to get into the city and Saturday evening we have a get together in Baltimore so that leaves Sunday as the only evening we can do dinner (unless we do lunch on Saturday). PS 7's is one of my favorite DC places, but I already know they're closed on Sundays. I used to really love Mendocino as well, but I'm not up for going to Georgetown. The other place that instantly crossed my mind is Central. I know the reviews on here are mixed, but I've always had consistently good meals there whether in the bar or dining room. However, I haven't been since the chef changed so I have no idea what I'd think of it now. If you could only introduce your friend to one place, where would you go? Price isn't a huge factor although places like Restaurant Eve and Komi are too much (Source's dining room would also be out for that reason I think), but entrees up to $30 (as long as the bulk don't hang out up there) are fine. Consistently good food is key, nice wine selection (with some reasonably priced at least), good service is a plus. Something that "says" DC, that's indicative of the food scene here in some way (one reason I would like Central, since Michel Richard established himself as a top DC chef long ago) if that makes sense? Thanks! Oops, totally forgot for a minute, we're going to see a show at the 9:30 club Monday night. I'm not sure I want to do the drawn out, multi-course expensive meal beforehand, but I would love suggestions for places in the area to eat and have a glass or two of wine or beer before heading to the show. I usually do Dukem, just b/c there's no good Ethiopian out here in the classy suburb of Laurel, but I'd like to try something different. The only place I can think of is Bar Pilar - not sure if it's still got a good reputation, but I've never been. Thanks again.

I've been wanting to get to Glen Manor winery for some time, after first getting the chance to taste one of the sauvignon blancs at a Black Ankle staff meeting, and then reading Jeff's posts on here. Recently, a couple came into the tasting room when I was working and mentioned that Linden was their favorite VA winery. Since it's long been a favorite of mine as well, I asked which other wineries they'd recommend and their answer was Glen Manor and Chester Gap. The recommendations were a reminder that with the weather changing it was time to get out to Glen Manor. With the additional recommendation of Chester Gap, I felt I had a perfect little day tour orchestrated. So this past Saturday, dogs were thrown in the car and after a hike at Sky Meadows State Park, we visited Linden again, followed by Chester Gap, and finally Glen Manor. Can I just say that I think we've discovered the VA trifecta, and all within a 15 minute drive of each other! At Linden, we started with the regular tasting. The Seyval was refreshing as always and the chardonnay was nicely balanced (light oak from older barrels, but no malo-lactic fermentation in any of their chardonnays). Of the 2 reds, I found the claret pleasant, but felt the petite verdot fell a little flat. While I like a lot of tannin I just felt their wasn't enough fruit to balance it and it wasn't particularly complex. We skipped tasting the off-dry riesling until later as it was time for the reserve tasting. I think anyone who goes to Linden should try to fit in the reserve tasting, which is offered every 45 min on the weekend for $12. You get a lot more information about the winemaking process while getting to taste their higher end wines, and they try to do interesting side-by-side pairings. For this one, we got to compare single-vineyard chardonnays from two different vintages so we could see the difference the growing season makes (the '08 Boisseau, a nicely acidic chardonnay vs the '07 Hardscrabble, a more subtle, smooth, food-friendly chardonnay), followed by 2 reds grown the same year, but from different vineyards and with different blends (the '06 Avenius vs the '06 Hardscrabble, accompanied by some locally made sausage), and finally 2 different dessert wines, a vidal and a petit manseng, both late harvest and made in the style of ice wines. We found ourselves unable to put the 2 dessert wines down, especially the vidal which had a lovely spice quality even though neither of us often drink these types of dessert wines (give me a glass of port with a bit of dark chocolate any day). Linden also has beautiful grounds and a lovely deck, but note that only case club members can use the deck on weekends. Chester Gap has a much more casual feel, the tasting room isn't much more than a makeshift bar, but with large windows overlooking what may be one of the best tasting room views in VA, especially we imagined in the fall. The wines we tasted were somewhat different than what's listed on their website. We tasted 3 different viogniers, their "base" viognier, aged in stainless steel, followed by a single vineyard (I believe also from the Boisseau vineyard) and a reserve viognier. Surprisingly we both liked the basic viognier the best with it's dry style and nice acidity. For reds, we tasted the '07 merlot and the '07 cabernet franc. Anyone who has ever tasted wine with me in VA knows that I despise many of the VA cab francs for their often vegetal (green pepper) quality, although I've managed to find a few that I enjoy, including Barren Ridge's. This cab franc was delicious, smooth, rich and made in a Bordeaux style blend. We each left with bottles of the merlot as well, plus a third "shared" bottle that was supposed to pair with the leg of lamb that never got made. Our next and final stop (oops, I lie, we slammed on the brakes and did a quick u-turn as we noticed Rappahannock, but I don't feel like their wines are really worth mentioning in this post) was Glen Manor. We started off with the 2 sauvignon blancs. It was surprisingly hard for me to pick a favorite, the '07 is made in a more French style, I could easily envision having it with food, but I still felt it had a nice acidity. The '08 is made in a much more new world (think New Zealand) style, with almost bracing acidity, which I happen to love in a white wine, particularly a sauvignon blanc, but it was bizarre to be drinking this wine in a VA winery (in a good way). I took bottles of both home and am certain I will be tasting them side by side with and without food in an attempt to pick a favorite in the future. Regardless, both were really great wines. Equally delicious were the 2 reds, the '07 cabernet franc and the '07 Hodder Hill, essentially the bordeaux-style/meritage blend. I'm going to admit it was the end of the day at this point so my tasting notes (especially since I'm going by memory) might be unreliable so I'll just leave it at we loved them both, perhaps the cab franc moreso than the Hodder Hill (yet another wine trying to change my poor opinion of VA cab franc) and left with bottles of both. An added bonus, a few of the wines are offered in half bottle sizes, not that anyone needs just a half a bottle of this wine, but I've been wanting one or two for storing open wine that I don't finish in one night so it was nice to be able to buy some this way. No idea if this is interesting or useful to anyone, but I am such a fan of supporting local wineries and really feel the quality at these 3 is outstanding (not just good for VA, although I really hate to make statements like that) so I hope others will visit based on the recommendations and find new wineries to love as well.

Interesting thread. I will say first that I'm not able to attend many of these types of dinners b/c of cost, but I will fork over the cash when the stars align - a chef I like, high quality wines, and a menu that has dishes that appeal. I've generally been pleased with my experiences, one at PS 7's stands out in my mind. I do really love PS 7's as anyone can probably tell from my posts in that thread, but this was the chef at his absolute best. The wines were very good across the board and more importantly they paired quite well with the dishes. The winemaker provided some info about the wines, but if my memory is correct, it wasn't obtrusive and you could follow up with questions later if you wanted. We ended up at the table with 2 staff members so no concerns about stuffy guests for us. Based only on my history, I think it's the food that tends to guide me - if the chef/menu appeals I'm more drawn to consider it. If I see wines that I know I like or want to try, but the restaurant is questionable, I dismiss it. So my expectations going in are probably that the food is excellent and that the wines pair well; I'm not necessarily looking for wines that I would buy and add to my cellar, if that makes sense? Mostly, I think it's an opportunity for a chef to be creative and inspired and show his best. Of course, if I had more money, I would do this sort of thing much more often and would probably be much less discerning. On a somewhat side note, if you want to eat good to great food, drink a LOT of good wine and just have a lot of fun overall, I recommend the Chef's Expressions dinners up in Baltimore. The chef's are great guys, a lot of fun and always interacting with guests, the food is always good with a standout or 2 and the wines tend to be really good and flow freely. It's a larger group (Chef's Expressions also does catering and other events) so it's on a different level, but the cost is line line with that, usually under $100 for 5 courses plus hors d'ouvres that are passed beforehand (wine with those as well) with wines with every course.

I'm late to the game apparently. When the forum got moved, I was disappointed to say the least, but I somehow missed this explanation (?) for why. As someone who cares considerably about the Baltimore dining scene, who identifies more with Baltimore than with DC (perhaps b/c I actually grew up in Pgh, although I have lived in Laurel for the last 7 years, of all of the restaurant forsaken places), and who makes an effort to post in here when I do eat out in Baltimore, I agree with Juliusc91 that the move is just putting the nail in the coffin. I also don't see what the harm was in leaving it as a stand alone where it was. What negative effect was it having that it needed to be moved? In terms of making the Baltimore thread more active, did you consider contacting Baltimore restaurant owners and encouraging them to post & tell their customers about this place, getting something in the Baltimore City Paper, making a FB page, etc.? I'm sure someone smarter than me can come up with even better marketing ideas, other than just telling the apparent few Baltimore members to tell their friends or else.

And yet there are still no more reviews in either thread.

This sounds fantastic! Does the price include any wines, or is there a wine pairing option?

Anyone else? How was dinner?! I'm dying to hear, all of my favorites and some I still want to try were on the menu. Oh, and what was the dessert?

Went to Woodberry again last night (this is in addition to the wonderful meal I had back in January). This is another place that gets better and better with each visit for me. Highlights were the smoked onion dip w/homemade potato and sweet potato chips (I could live on this stuff!), the deviled eggs w/chipped ham, the flatbread (this time it was chorizo, goat cheese and sweet potato), and the scallop special I had was fantastic with these out of the world homemade hushpuppies alongside. I also thought my friend's ribeye was seasoned and cooked really well and came with a delicious, creamy cheesy potato gratin (I could do w/o the housemade steak sauce though, which tasted like glorified ketchup to me). And of course if you're an oyster fan, you can't go wrong with the raw or any of the cooked preparations (I'll take cooked, thank you very much ). We picked this night to go b/c one of my favorite local musicians - Caleb Stine - was performing. With their live music on the first Tuesday of each month now, there's no reason not to go check out Woodberry (or go back if you haven't been in a while).

Last night was my 4th time to Iron Bridge. My opinion of the place improves with each visit and last night's meal was certainly the best I've had there. I started with a Marlborough sauvignon blanc at the bar. Acidic lip-smackingly good sauv blanc you'd expect from that region for $8/glass. My app was the soup of the day, a creamy mushroom soup topped with crispy shallots and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, rich and delicious. The crispy shallots could have been crispier, but that would be serious nit-picking. At this point, our bottle of pinot had arrived (no "corkage" on Thursdays until 9 so you only pay the retail price for the bottle) - an elegant pinot from the Russian River Valley, the 2006 Joseph Swann, that I would highly recommend. It paired PERFECTLY with my friend's app - a sausage made of duck, foie gras, and sauternes served on mashed potatoes with a basic sauce. The sausage was out of this world and it really was one of those pairings that you experience rarely. For my entree, I got the sablefish, which was cooked nicely and topped with a bed of greens and served alongside barley that was flavored with a sweet chili oil and topped with roasted mushrooms. Not a "must have" dish if I go back but each component was very good and it all went nicely together. My friend got a second app for his entree, the seared foie gras poutine. The foie was exceptional, seared very nicely and the whole dish was delicious - we both agreed though that the sauce should have been on the side though as the fries were swimming in it and mushy by the time the dish arrived. Still a delicious dish. Overall, an excellent meal and I'm looking forward to going back again soon.

I'm disappointed to be missing this, but I made plans to eat at Woodberry Kitchen that night before I realized. I look forward to hearing the reports from everyone.

Went to Nava Thai yesterday after forgetting that Mi La Cay is closed on Wednesdays. What was supposed to be a simple lunch turned into a bit of a dining extravaganza. My companion and I shared 4 things - the chicken Tom Kha, the mussels hot pot, the duck kaprow (crispy duck w/basil) and the papaya salad. We found the mussels a bit bland and overcooked - my friend reported that the last time they had been cooked well and had more broth so perhaps this was an off day for the hot pot. Everything else was delicious. The soup and the papaya salad in particular were so nicely balanced b/w their sour, spicy, and sweet aspects. The papaya salad was probably my favorite (a surprise as I had been unenthused based on the description) with the nice crispness from the papaya and a generous amount of heat in the sauce that would really build with each bite. This sounds like the salad that deangold posted about, but I don't remember meat in our dish so maybe they've changed it or there is more than one version. The duck was rich and delicious as usual. Not exactly a cheap lunch, but we both took home small portions of leftovers. Oh, the jasmine tea was quite nice as well.

Just wanted to share the wonderful dining experiences I had in Boston/Cambridge in case it's useful to anyone looking for a place in the future. We unexpectedly ended up having lunch at Neptune's - just happened to start my walking tour of the city with my friend (who lives in Cambridge) in the area, he mentioned that one of his favorite places was nearby and when he told me it was Neptune's I figured it was a no brainer. We had some raw oysters to start - I have to admit that I really don't appreciate them, but of course the selection at Neptune's is great and the bartender was incredibly helpful in helping us identify which ones we might like. I ended up making my own "tasting" from their list and so I could settle the issue once and for all. The verdict: the West coast ones are okay, but I just don't really appreciate them. Now fried is another story and the Neptunes on Piggyback - perfectly fried oysters on a bed of pulled pork on a crostini with raisins and a pistachio aioli - were delicious. We also each had a bowl of clam chowder, which was filled with seafood-y goodness, but I will admit I am not a chowder expert so I can't really speak to how it compares to others. Dinner ended up being at Rendevous and I was so pleased with that meal. I had the pork belly app w/cabbage and mustard seeds, which was incredibly rich and delicious followed by the pork/veal meatballs with toasted orecchiette that another poster mentioned. Wow, toasted pasta, what a revelation. This dish was outstanding. My only regret is that I accidentally left the leftovers in my friend's fridge when I headed back out of town. My friend had the lobster salad, followed by the lamb - both of his were quite good, but I think I "won". Service across the board was friendly and attentive and the wine by the glass recommendations were spot on. I selected the bottle for our entrees and will admit I won on that one too - the aglianico paired perfectly with my orecchiette. Dessert was the lemon buttermilk pudding with huckleberry sauce, not to be missed. As we were leaving, I asked to see the manager and gushed to her about our experience because I was so pleased with the experience overall.

As usual, I have waited until the last minute to do any planning (not sure what's up with me as I am usually such a planner, too busy at work I guess). Anyway, I'm headed up to the Boston area for a seminar this weekend and will have one day to explore Boston. If you had the chance to eat only one meal in Boston, where would it be? No restrictions except for cost - I have friends joining me for whom money is tight. Doesn't mean it can't be somewhat expensive if there are options for them to make their meals more reasonably priced, just can't do Restaurant Eve/Komi type of expensive. A friend recommended Trattoria di Monica. I haven't looked into it yet, but she hasn't lived in the city for a few years and I hadn't mentioned any price restrictions when I asked her so I have no idea whether it will fit the bill. I'm starting to read through back posts and look into places mentioned, but thought I'd put my query out. Thanks! ETA: I just did some searching and both EVOO and Rendevous are looking good to me. Both seem to jive with my eat local/green values and get great reviews. Not sure if Rendevous has rez left, EVOO does. Any thoughts? Is one better than the other? Also still open to other suggestions. Also now thinking about a place to pop in for a quick lunch - maybe something ethnic and cheap that's in a good sight-seeing spot (could I be more vague?)

No idea on waits at Ssam since we arrived right as they opened on a Sunday morning (11:30), but if you do go, make sure you get the brussels sprouts (or apparently sometimes it's made with cauliflower instead - served dressed with a fish sauce vinaigrette and spicy rice krispies).

There was an interesting post about Black Ankle on Monday in Mitchell Pressman's (owner of Chesapeake Wine Company in Baltimore) blog. I think he mentions this, but this is the third event like this that they've done and the Black Ankle wine has placed 1st in 2 of the 3 (and 3rd in the other). So I think the results speak for themselves. The other thing I always point out to folks (I started working in the tasting room once or twice a month in November) - and Mitchell makes a good point about this as well - is that this is only Black Ankle's second vintage. If you consider the excellent quality of the wines with the vines being only a few years old, it's hard not to get really excited about where they will be 10 years from now, and 20, etc. One of the really great things to come out of Sara and Ed's efforts is that other MD wineries are starting to ask how they're doing it so that they can start to make estate wines as well. I think this is a turning point for MD wine. I know this may seem like exceptionally high praise, but again, the wines speak for themselves. That, and their efforts at sustainability are what got me excited about Black Ankle and ultimately landed me in the tasting room in the first place.

To address the service comments: we were at Cheesetique a couple of weekends ago. It was during restaurant week. We arrived around 4 and sat at the bar. During our time there, I had the white wine flight followed by a glass of red, my friend had 2 glasses of red, and we shared a large cheese board (I think 3 cheeses and 2 meats). I was less than impressed with the service throughout. No one was outright rude, but we sat at the bar for quite some time being ignored before anyone asked if we wanted a drink and typically we had to flag someone down when we wanted something else. Generally, the staff - again, while not rude - was not particularly friendly or helpful. We live in Laurel and were in the area, but not in a hurry so it didn't bother me to a great extent but for it to become my friendly neighborhood place, the staff would probably need to warm up a bit (and maybe they do if you come in more frequently). FYI, we were there early so it wasn't busy when we arrived so that wasn't the reason for us being ignored. While the wines didn't impress (they were all fine, just didn't wow us), the cheese and meats were delicious. I ended up purchasing the sausage that we had, and the pate that we had was one of the best I've had. All 3 cheeses were excellent - again, I ended up taking one of them home with me (along with some others that we didn't try on the cheese board of course). If I lived in the area, I would definitely stop in frequently to patronize the front of the house.

I don't know of any around here, but was going to mention this market to you as well. I've gotten food from the restaurant back when it was in Burtonsville (it's now in Laurel just east of Route 1 on 198 East), but always only noticed sandwiches. I'll be checking out the chicken corn soup sometime. Even if they don't have all of the food you're looking for, it's a really fun place to visit and everything is still cheap.

Strangely I think the dish doesn't always mesh with what the menu says. I don't think the M1 mentions ground pork while the M2 does, but both of our dishes had it. Maybe they just noticed Dave's a big guy and threw some extra pork in for him. I did notice the M3 doesn't list a shrimp cracker - who would not want that crispy bit of deliciousness?! I too couldn't finish mine and got a take out container. It was just as delicious if not more so the following day. I think my only "complaint" is that I really love fish cakes and wish you got more than one bite of it. If I could, I would exchange my fish ball and squid for more fish cake. The menu is so extensive though it was hard to take it all in - there may actually be a dish that has more or is primarily fish cake.

Did you go? I was with Juliusc91 for the vietnamese adventure and upon reflection, I really don't think the banh mi at Hung Phat is all that great. Maybe relatively speaking as we're in Silver Spring so our options are limited, but the sandwich being cold is a real downside for me. Now that I know what else is out there, I doubt I will want Hung Phat's often. V.H. - good to know. We stared into the window of the one you mentioned for some time, but we were at our limit with the other things we ate (including roasted pork from the grocery, which was the highlight of the day for me) and 2 types of fried tofu from another shop.

Thanks for sharing the winter report. I had hoped to get to the market today - we drove down to Falls Church from MD to visit the vietnamese market and then check out Cheesetique in Arlington, but we didn't get an early enough start to make it to the market first. Just gives me a reason to go back soon!

Any other recent insights? I am going tonight with a few friends for my birthday and haven't been in a while. Kmango, your review is quite helpful, although I intend to stay away from the absinthe myself.